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There is a place in this work where theory can’t take us.A place beyond language, beyond analysis, beyond the perfect explanation of “what happened to us.”
There is a knowing that lives in the tissues.In the breath.In the organs.In the wobble. (As Susan Powell explained)
This week’s Friday With Friends was a homecoming into that truth with my dear friend Susan Powell, LMT — a bodyworker, somatic practitioner, and nervous system anchor whose presence alone reminds you that rest is not a luxury…it’s the method.
We talked about how liberation work requires capacity, and capacity is a function of regulation. We cannot dismantle the systems that harm us while still living inside the nervous system patterns those systems created.
As I said live:
“Liberation work requires rest. It needs repair. It needs you to settle your nervous system.”
And Susan, sitting outside under the trees, spoke to how she roots herself before she roots anyone else:
“It’s not something I do to people. It’s a collaborative process between two nervous systems.”
That right there is decolonized care.No hierarchy.No “fixing” energy.No savior.Just relationship.
The Body as a Site of Memory
Our bodies carry both personal and collective memory.Supremacy culture does not just teach us how to feel — it teaches us how to hold ourselves “together”:
* Tightened breath
* Collapsed posture
* Armor in the jaw
* A spine that doesn’t trust the world to hold it
* Hip tension where grief lives unspoken
Like I shared:
“If you’re uncomfortable, that’s information. Your body is disrupting a lie.”
And Susan brought it straight home:
“The body hugs the lesion.”
Meaning:Where we have experienced harm, the tissue tightens to protect us.Which means that when liberation begins, the body wobbles.The wobble is not a sign of failure.The wobble is the work.
Body Sovereignty is Liberation Work
We talked about ritual — not performance ritual, but rhythm:
* Letting the sun touch your skin
* Drinking water with intention
* Touching the body to remind yourself you are here
* Sitting in nature long enough to feel the pulse of your own aliveness
This work is accessible.It is not expensive.It is not elite.
As Susan said:
“So much of what nourishes the nervous system is free. The sun is free.”
And that alone is revolutionary in a culture that monetizes healing and calls exhaustion “success.”
— PAYWALL BEGINS HERE —
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